Below this introduction is the history page for the historic website of the GPS Signal Science Division
of the Cooperative Research Centre for Satellite Systems, the CRCSS. This Centre was directed by
Dr Elizabeth Essex-Cohen of La Trobe University, with much GPS and ionospheric research being undertaken
at La Trobe University, but other GPS related, especially more applied application research being undertaken at other Australian centres.
The website includes a brief accounts of plans for CRCSS research
conducted at other Australian centres. However the value of this site was greatly
enhanced by providing an account of the history of satellites, and of Australia's
involvement in this history.
Note that FedSat was not in fact launched until December 14, 2002,
and the projected ARIES satellite project never went ahead.
The historic home page for the GPS Signal Science Division of the CRC for Satellite Systems is
here

A few of the images that were no longer available have been replaced. Some broken links remain.

UPDATED 2017: New text in Green

Australia in Space - a History
Third in Space --Thirty years of inaction --
Rebirth with FedSat 1
Sputnik launched 1957, Explorer 1 in 1958, then with WRESAT in
1967
Australia came third in the satellite league table,
passing Canada's Alouette, and France's FR-1.
See the Satellite Big league Table below.
Here come Australia's latest satellites,
FedSat in 2001, and ARIES in 2000.
The caption above may be a little unfair (to Australia) as various
Australian researchers have been involved with satellite
science and technology over the years -
but always using someone else's space vehicle.
With FedSat 1, we at long last
have the opportunity
to launch and operate our own satellite.

Australian scientific satellites are:

WRESAT Launched 29 November 1967 from Woomera, South Australia.

The first stage of the launch veicle was a USAF Redstone Rocket. Initially over painted white.
The first stage was recovered from Prohibited Area at Woomera and put on display at Woomera village.

The launching gantry erected at Woomera for the
UK Blue Streak missile project was comparable to those at
Cape Caneveral. However following on the cancellation of the Blue Streak missile project,
the multi-story building, erected at a remote location at great expense by Australia,
was demolished, in an outstanding act of Forward
Thinking. See Woomera Story.

Pix to left is of the actual satellite, with boom arm retracted, in the cargo bay of the
Japanese H-IIA
rocket which launched FedSat along with the Microlabsat and WEOS microsatellites.
The launch from the Tanegashima Space Center, Japan, took place
on
Saturday December 14, 2002 ; FedSat was operational for over five years.

Australia's third scientific satellite launch, involved
not just one but three
nano-satellites called
CubeSats.
All three were launched by NASA to the ISS from Cape Canaveral on April 19, 2017, to be actually
launched into orbit from the International
Space Station a month later. The three stackable satellites launched were
Inspire-2 ( Univ Sydney ),
SuSat ( Univ Adelaide),
and UNSW-ECO (Univ NSW)
as part of a European project, QB50, which involves 50 such nano satellites.

To left artists impression.

The Ancient History of Space Science in Australia

On 1 April 1947, the United Kingdom / Australian Joint Project came into
existence and marks the commencement of Australian Space Program(s).
In a memo to PM JB Chifley, 20 Sept 1946,
it is stated that
".. this project ... without question put Australia in the very forefront
of the most modern developments in ... Science."
The project essentially came to an end with the launch of WRESAT
in 1967.
With the launching of WRESAT,
Australia did indeed join the big league of
nations launching satellites from their own territory,
of which the US and the USSR were the only
members at that date.
But there was no ongoing Australian Space Program for over thirty years.
The only exception to this statement
was the launch in 1970
of the very modest Australian satellite, Australis,
given a free launch by NASA, which called it Oscar-5.
Australis was a simple beacon satellite, like Sputnik -1,
with on-board receivers to control powering down
(to conserve its alkaline batteries.)
But over thirty years, while communication
satellites became commonplace,
there were no further Australian developmental or scientific satellites.
However, at the start of the next millenium,
this dream of fifty years ago may yet come true.
CRC SS Chair Tony Staley has prophesised that "the FedSat project would generate a new spirit of nat
ional confidence and encourage young Australians to set their sights on the star
s."
See Mission of FedSat

The Special Possibilities for FedSat GPS

The special opportunity and challenge that FedSat
presents is
to use the
signals from
GPS and Glonass satellites
to probe the atmospher and ionosphere.
Better knowledge of atmosphere
temperature and water vapour content,
has great promise to improve weather prediction.
Better knowledge of the ionosphere
(and plasmasphere)
-- the so-called space weather --
is vital to satellite communication and
the application of long range radar.
Yet GPS system became fully operational only in 1995.
FedSat's exciting use of GPS features in the
ATMOZ - GPS Project
For the technically inclined, see the
Overview of GPS = Global Positioning System
Compare with Russian system
GLONASS

FedSat 1 and International Collaboration in Space Science

With FedSat, Australian scientists can for the first
time in 30 years participate fully in
space science. We shall participate in
Mission to Planet Earth
the Satellite Data Information Scheme devised by NASA.
Now adopted by COSSA
for use in Australia's space program

Australia launchel
WRESAT 29 November 1967 from Woomera, South Australia.

Sputnik launched 1957, Explorer 1 in 1958, then with WRESAT in 1967 Australia came third in the
satellite league table, passing Canada's Alouette, and France's FR-1.
Although Australia was at the forefront
of Man's initial steps into space,
the retirement of Sir Robert Menzies as PM
heralded a long era of neglect of satellite technology.
See
The history of Australia in space

Syncom 2 was the first operational geosynchronous satellite.
Was used for the very first satellite relayed telephone call.

Apr 6, 1965

Comsat's Early Bird launched

Oct 26, 1966

Intelsat IIA launched

Dec 7, 1966

ATS 1 launched
Geostationary satellite above Hawaii.

ATS 1 transmitted weather images and data to ground stations, as well as video feeds for television broadcasting.
Functioned as stationary beacon satellite for pioneering studies (1969+) of ionospheric plasma
TEC by Elizabeth Essex-Cohen of La Trobe University, Melbourne.
[ TEC = Total Electron Content of the ionosphere along radio path from beacon to receiver.]

Jan 11, 1967

INTELSAT 2 F-2 launched
aka INTELSAT 28; Pacific 1; 2F2; I2F2; 02639

Launched by NASA at Cape Canaveral for the International Telecommunications Satellite Corporation.
A COMSAT Corporation commercial communications satellite, it reached its intended location on February 4, 1967.
Notably was used as a beacon satellite for the first ionospheric plasma TEC measurements in an auroral
zone
by La Trobe grad. student Brenton Watkins at ANARE Base, Macquarie Island in 1970.

Mariner 10

First
Planetary Sling Shot
Mariner 10 was the
first space vehicle to use the gravitational pull of one
planet (Venus) to reach another (Mercury). Launched
November 3, 1973, Mariner 10 was for a short time a solar satellite,
in orbit about the sun.

Pioneer 10 and 11 were the first two
Space Vehicles to Escape from the Solar System